Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have evacuated tens of thousands of people from the Syr Darya river basin after a reservoir dam on the Uzbek side burst, flooding large areas on both sides of the border, the authorities said on Saturday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made his first public appearance in 20 days, state news agency KCNA reported on Saturday, amid speculation that he may be sick or even dead. North Korean media ran photographs showing the leader apparently attending a ceremony marking the completion of a fertilizer plant in Sunchon, some 50 kilometres north of the capital Pyongyang.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said his government plans to extend a state of emergency by about a month as the country continues to see hundreds of new coronavirus cases daily, news wires reported.

South Korea, once one of the hardest-hit countries in the coronavirus pandemic, reported no new cases on Thursday, boosting hopes of an eventual return to normality as US scientists hailed the results of a major drug trial.The good medical news caused equities to rally, despite mounting deaths worldwide and abysmal economic figures caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is "alive and well", a top security adviser to the South's President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumours over Kim's health following his absence from a key anniversary.

Japan is adding 14 more countries, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, to an entry ban to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced on Monday. The measures will take effect on Wednesday, Abe said.

The whereabouts and health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un remain shrouded in mystery, with reports ranging from that he is gravely ill after a cardiovascular operation to that he’s already dead. As a result, Reuters is now reporting that China sent medical experts to the communist state in an advisory capacity. 

China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing three people familiar with the situation. According to them a delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday. The department is the main Chinese body dealing with neighbouring North Korea.

A roundup of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and a row over the powers of Beijing's office in the city have deepened the political crisis engulfing the financial hub even as a coronavirus lockdown prevents large-scale protests.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced they had successfully launched the country's first military satellite on Wednesday, a programme that the US alleges is a cover for its missile development.